The Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College Presents Series on Sustainability and Consumption in Asia

Five thousand years ago in Asia, the five elements most basic to the
global ecosystem were identified as: earth, fire, water, wood and
metal. Today the Asia-Pacific region’s booming populations, rapidly
growing economies and increased power are contributing to massive
global environmental changes. The elements of old meet modern
challenges of sustainability and consumption. The Pacific Basin
Institute at Pomona College will address these issues in the fall 2008
lecture series, “Consuming/Sustaining Asia: Elemental
Concerns—Earth/Fire.” There is no cost to attend the lectures, which
are open to the public and will be held at Pomona College:

Peter Hays Gries (Director of the Institute for U.S.-China Issues, University of Oklahoma)

The Chinese Communist Party invested over $40 billion in
stadiums and infrastructure for the Beijing Olympics, and lost billions
more by shutting down factories in the hopes of curbing Beijing’s
notorious pollution. Did the investment pay off? What impact did
increased exposure to China during the Olympics have on American
attitudes towards China? Gries will address these questions in his
talk.

Susan Whitfield (Historian, Curator at the British Library and Director of the International Dunhuang Project)

The yellow earth in China’s historical heart is a potent
symbol for the country. Long a source of life and art, during the 1980s
it was, however, portrayed as indicative of China’s backwardness in the
documentary series ‘Heshang’ and, more ambivalently, in Zhang Yimou’s
‘Yellow Earth’. Dividing the people of the plains with their abundant
yellow earth from the peoples of the steppes with their sparse black
earth it also symbolizes a boundary between the settled and the nomad.
In this illustrated talk, Whitfield—who has traveled and written
extensively on the Silk Road—will question these boundaries and
consider an alternative story, where peoples, their culture and their
art migrate and mix, just like the earth around them.

The Pacific Basin Institute is dedicated to expanding and enhancing
comity and shared knowledge among the nations and cultures that face
the Pacific. A valued study, media production and research center, PBI
also offers books, film series and lecture programs to a general as
well as academic audience. Since the turn of the past century Pomona
College has been a leader in Asian Studies among American
universities.